New Trados Studio coming in September

I got an email the other day from SDL, the maker of the Trados software. Apparently, the company is about to launch a new version of the Trados Studio this September.

At first glance, the new version looks good and professional, and I have no doubt it'll work as well as the current version, Trados Studio 2009. But there's something I don't get: Why did SDL fail yet again to come up with a separate Mac version of the program?

PC sales are down, way down. In fact, Microsoft, known for the worst operating system in the world, has only a few more years of life left in it. By contrast, Apple has seen a boost in Mac computer sales by well over 28% over the same period. More and more people, and virtually all of the Fortune 500 companies, are making the switch from the PC to Mac.

Writers, and that includes translators, have been especially prominent among Mac adopters (yours truly included). For starters, when you spend a lot of time in front of a computer screen, you want a kind of quality of fonts, etc. that doesn't harm your eyes. The display quality of the Windows environment is invariably lethal to one's eyes, whereas the Mac display is like balm by comparison.

And, no, it's not a matter of having a better screen (even though iMac and Macbook screens are the best in the world), because when I run Windows on Mac, the font quality is just as crappy, so it's something to do with the way Microsoft has coded its display capabilities.

However, to date, only wordfast supplies a Mac version of its programs. For all others, translators are required to run a virtualized Windows computer inside the Mac in order to work with Trados or any other PC-only applications.

So, get with the times, and start producing Mac versions of your programs, if you cherish our continued business. 

Remember: PC and Microsoft is for dummies who don't know any better. The smart and sophisticated ones work with Mac and other Apple products exclusively.